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Who is to blame? |
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HIV/Aids in Nigeria is a typical example. The church and the government blame each other for not addressing the problem in a positive way, and both blame the culture. Some churches see HIV/Aids as God's punishment for fornicators and adulterers. Instead of caring for and supporting those who are infected and affected, they judge, condemn and stigmatize them. Husbands or wives come to the church and complain of their partners' unfaithfulness. All that the church does is blame them for the unfaithfulness and ask them to return to their partners. Many do return, then get infected and die in shame. Some churches have rules that require couples preparing for marriage to test for HIV: if either tests positive, the pastor refuses to perform the ceremony. No counselling is given. The woman's interest is not protected even when she is at the risk of HIV infection. A married woman cannot say "no" to sex even when she knows that her husband is positive. She is seen as an object of sex with no "say" in the matter. It is sad that many Reformed churches still see women as second-class and deny them full participation in the life of the church. We heard in the Makurdi consultation of an incident where a woman studying theology in one of the seminaries was withdrawn from college after allegations that she aspired to become an ordained minister. National and state governments do not deal with HIV/Aids in a serious way and sometimes mislead the public with incorrect statistics. Adequate resources are not put into the fight against HIV/Aids. In campaign periods the governments tend to give the impression that the disease is under control and as a result people are less mindful of it. The state has a poor record in defending the human rights of people living with HIV/Aids. A nurse in Lagos who tested positive to HIV, and may have been infected in the course of her duties, was fired. She took the matter to the court, but the magistrate said she could not appear before him because of her HIV status. Nigerian culture has many good values such as a strong sense of family, identity and showing respect. But many injustices are perpetrated in the name of culture. In some tribes women are denied their right to inheritance. In many cases, widows are locked out of their homes empty-handed after their husband's death. Women whose husbands die of Aids return home from the hospital to find the door already padlocked and their clothing put outside. This leaves them with very limited choices and some turn to prostitution, exposing themselves again to HIV infection. In other cases, caring families ask a brother or other relative of the dead man to marry his widow. This is easily done because the woman is seen as property. But the cause of her husband's death is overlooked. In such a case the man may risk HIV infection. Wife hospitality is another big problem. To show hospitality, men allow their friends to have sex with their wife or wives. This is still the practice in the Tiv tribe of Benue State. It sees woman as a sex object and exposes both men and women to the threat of HIV infection. For the church, it is the governments' task to protect the rights of the masses. For government, the churches are a place where people can find help in time of need. So who is to blame when HIV/Aids is rapidly on the increase? Maybe we need to stop blaming one another and begin to work together in partnership, to get HIV/Aids in Nigeria under control and to eradicate it in the long term. Nnennaya Onyike, Presbyterian Church in Nigeria
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God created man and woman to live and work in partnership, caring for the rest of creation. However, this was not sustained. The man decided to blame the woman for his first sin and the woman shifted the blame to the serpent. This is still the order of the day. 
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